ARTICLES

• Something is missing. What should I do?
• Why are newer workers quitting?
• How can employer help workers become leaders?
• How do I become a better manager?
• What goals can be set to spur growth?
• How to find out what customers really think?
• What to do if an employee is rude to workers, vendors?
• Dealing with a manager who was passed over

The question 

I've tried many of what I consider the traditional benefits and empowerments, but it still seems like there's something missing. How can I fix this if I'm not quite sure what's wrong?

Dr. Spann's response

To figure out what might be "missing,'' you need to consciously gather and analyze the incidents that lead you to feel something's wrong. Are there conflicts between groups, high turnover, missed deadlines, angry staff? Start weekly brown bag lunches with the boss where employees can ask anything and get answers. Have your human resources person informally ask employees how things are going. Share your concerns with the informal leaders in your company, and then listen.

If these methods don't work, you can ask an outside consultant (who staff members might view as "safer'') to interview staff, do a survey or conduct a focus group to get information for you. Be ready to hear information you won't like. It's likely that one reason you haven't heard it before is that the employees know you don't want to hear it, or it affects your "sacred cow." The fixes may require changes on your part and in areas you consider untouchable.  A consultant you trust would be helpful to work through what is best for the business and your employees, even if it doesn't feel good to you.

The question

Why are newer workers quitting?  

Dr. Spann's response

 When there is high turnover, the costs of recruiting, hiring and training are much higher than those costs should be. Therefore, Company A  needs to take a hard look at its policies and practices on retaining, recruiting and hiring employees.  Company A  has a 60 percent turnover, and keeping more employees would significantly reduce the hiring problems. The losses tend to be the newest 20 percent of employees who quit over what the owners call 'minor incidents.'  Since these 'minor' incidents result in major hiring problems for the owners, it would be worthwhile to reframe these occurrences as "major, serious incidents."

With this heightened focus, owners will investigate these incidents to identify root causes and make changes to ensure that these do not recur. Ask returning employees why they left, and remedy those conditions. If an employee does quit for any reason, the owners should immediately talk to the employee to ask questions, rectify, clarify, explain the situation, and hopefully prevent the termination. The orientation process is an opportunity to emphasize the owner's open door policy, the intent to work with all employees to resolve issues and the owner's appreciation for their efforts. Meeting the owner and top managers who say and then demonstrate that they value employees will go a long way to retaining employees when incidents occur.

If qualified candidates are scarce, it's time to innovate. For Company A, it makes sense to expand on the word-of-mouth truck stop success. How can Company A get its name at more truck stops, perhaps in a broader geographical area? Could Company A get a list of all licensed drivers in the counties they cover? How about going after people who might relocate from other states? How about moving van drivers? Company A's hiring process should be reviewed to make it as speedy and streamlined as possible. Emphasize the positive features that Company A offers compared with other firms, especially those features that attracted prior employees to return (weekends home, fair wages with increasing diesel fuel costs). Have interviews scripted to efficiently gather the data you need to make a decision. Have all interviewers meet the same day to share information and make a decision, pending license review, etc. The more quickly you can get back to the candidate, the better.

The question

Can leadership be learned, or is it something employees coming to work for me should already possess?

Dr. Spann's response

Leadership skills can be learned. You can expect all employees to possess self-leadership skills on hire: willingness to learn, ability to set personal goals, individual control of behavior and responsibility for individual actions.

In addition, different job levels require different levels of leadership skills.  For example, an executive should possess the ability to conceptualize and articulate a strategic global vision for the company; to continually encourage all to strive for a certain goal; and to be interpersonally competent as a coach to a diverse work force. Leadership skills for expert workers of any function or discipline should include planning well; anticipating problems; persuading others to contribute to projects; and continually looking for better ways to meet customer needs without being directed to do so.

If a potential employee does not yet possess the leadership skills appropriate for the job, the owner can provide developmental experiences to be practiced and learned on the job. Also, challenging assignments with cross-functional co-workers are an excellent way to develop leadership skills for promotional opportunities.

The question

What tools do I need, interpersonal and otherwise, to be a better manager? I read what seems like lots of conflicting information about what it takes for leaders to lead.

Dr. Spann's response
Conflicting information on what interpersonal and other tools managers need to lead reflects the fact that organizations are different and change over time. Skills that help a manager succeed today could make that manager fail in a different company or in the same company 10 years later.
Determining what's necessary to become a better manager will require a yearly company and self-evaluation. Take the time to think through what your company's strengths and problem areas are, where your industry is going and what future needs might be. Get information from peers, employees, your banker and suppliers. Determine what managerial skills and tools are needed to lead the company to success in the future.

Evaluate your own managerial strengths ruthlessly against the managerial skills and tools needed for the company's success. Get good information from trusted confidants. If you don't have the needed skills, begin a developmental plan to get them. This plan could include reading, workshops, plunging into new assignments, joint projects with experts and coaching from consultants.

The question

Our company is in the process of setting goals for next year. Rather than the traditional "sell more, earn more" philosophy we've had in the past, what new tack could we take next year to truly grow?

Dr. Spann's response

To focus your company on growth, first conduct a detailed customer survey of your most important customers, asking them what they need and want in your products and services today and five years from now. Analyze this data looking for innovative products, new services and enhanced services as a competitive edge.  After weighing costs, time to payoff and competitors, select goals in both product development and service delivery. Invest in the research and development of these new products and services. Get customer feedback much earlier and more often than usual in the development process to stay close to customers' needs and to avoid wasted work.

Reward employees for increases in current customers' purchases - one of the least expensive ways to grow business. Find new or uncommon channels of distribution to get your product and services to new customers. In your operations and sales areas, identify  "best practices'' and insure they're communicated to and adopted by the entire organization to upgrade all branches and divisions. Tie managers' pay to how well they set and meet product and service goals for growth.

The question

Our customers seem to be happy with our products and our service, but we don't know for sure what they think. What should we be doing to find out?

Dr. Spann's response

Every company has "listening posts" where their customers come in contact with their employees: points of sale; calls for information; complaints, repairs, service and returns.  Make sure you've established a process whereby these already existing bits of data are sent to a customer satisfaction data base to be summarized, tracked and reviewed monthly by upper management.

Then add tools such as prepaid postcard surveys at sale and over the life cycle of your product, phone calls after service and repairs to ensure that everything went well, phone surveys of targeted users, surveys of potential customers or new markets, visits to lost accounts by a third party, regular visits by upper management to important customers to find out what changes and additions they'd like in your product and service offerings in the next five years.

To ensure you keep your critical customers and maintain your technological advantage, assign your design/engineering staff to work directly with critical, cutting-edge, demanding customers on their next-generation products using your product or service. This proactive stance will enable you to keep your product or service on the cutting edge of customer needs.

The question

I'm having an employee problem at my business. One person, who does great work and has been with our firm several years, has been consistently rude to other workers over the past year. Plus he has a real attitude when sales representatives and vendors call. We've talked about his behavior problem on several occasions; each time he reassures me things will get better. They haven't. I feel I need to give him an ultimatum, but I'm afraid if I do he'll just quit. What should I do?

Dr. Spann's response

Since rudeness can negatively affect customer perception of your products and services, employees' performance standards should include positive working relationships with all internal and external contacts. Using this standard, this employee is not doing "great work'' when he is rude. If this employee quits, the manager needs to feel the employee had every opportunity to improve.

It is possible the employee does not think rudeness affects his "great'' performance. It's also possible the manager's talks were perceived as friendly chats, not performance discussions. The manager should talk again with the employee, stating that rudeness is a performance problem which must stop. Since rudeness can be changed immediately, a short monitoring time frame of two weeks is reasonable. If no improvement is seen within that time, a final warning with a two-week monitoring period can be given, noting that if no improvement is seen, termination will result. If this employee has some special skill, the manager should immediately assign someone to work with the employee to learn as much as possible.

The question

I've recently promoted one of my mid-level managers to the sole, and recently vacated, senior post, a move that has generated lots of hard feelings with another middle manager who was passed over and who's been with the company longer. How do I make him understand my decision while keeping my role intact as head of the company?

Dr. Spann's response

At an off-premises meeting, explain that you understand he is angry, you respect his skills, experience and longevity and want to tell him personally what led to your decision. List the specific skills you required for this position. Tell him that you did consider him, but you felt the other person had the better set of skills for the top job. Reaffirm that he's a valuable manager and that you would like him to stay on, but that it's important he cooperate with the new senior manager. Calmly repeat as many times as necessary that you're sorry he disagrees, but as the owner it's your responsibility to make those decisions. Reiterate that you hope he'll continue to be a positive, contributing middle manager in your company.